The French are coming!
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of December, 2017, this year, the Croatian National Tourist Board is including Croatia’s nautical offer as part of the International Nautical Fair, held in Paris from the 2nd to the 10th of December, 2017.
The nautical fair being held in the French capital is a highly significant nautical manifestation, visited annually by more than 200,000 visitors and during which more than 130,000 square meters of space represent 700 exhibitors and 1,000 ships.
This year, the Croatian stand was visited by the director of HTZ’s Main Office, Kristijan Staničić, who also participated in the specialised ”SELL Croatia” business workshop. Accompanied by Staničić, the Croatian booth was visited by the Croatian Ambassador in France, HR. Filip Vučak and the director of HTZ’s representation in France, Danijela Mihalić Đurica.
“We organised this workshop with the aim of further enhancing the potential Croatia has as one of the best nautical destinations in the Mediterranean, in order to directly enable the cooperation of interested Croatian and French partners. Thus, this workshop was primarily intended for marinas, charter companies, and travel agencies specialising in nautical tourism and diving centers, bringing together 13 Croatian participants and about 60 French agencies, tour operators and journalists. Employees from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce also participated in the workshop, because nautical tourism (products) is one of the segments that places Croatia among the top destinations, “said Staničić.
New flights from France!
Kristijan Staničić also met with the director of Volotea, who said that in 2018, Volotea would have 300 routes connecting 78 European cities in 13 countries.
“Volotea is the fastest growing airline company in the French market, for which one of the key destinations is Croatia. France will open two new air lines between Nice and Split and Nantes and Pula in 2018. The HTZ director also noted that the two talked about potential in the coming years, as well as the possibility of opening new lines for Rijeka, Pula, Zadar and/or Zagreb, both from France and other European bases with Voltea.
Director Staničić met with the French director of the company Germania, which already introduced a regular line from Toulouse to Dubrovnik this year. The company has also announced new direct lines from France to Croatia. The aforementioned positive trends for Croatia in the French market have also been confirmed by Olivier Albahary, General Manager of GlobeSailor, the world leader in the online rental of vessels.
As Albahary said, Croatia is rated by some specialised organisers as one of the most attractive and best-selling nautical destinations, in front of destinations such as France, Italy or Greece. Big interest for Croatia and the further expansion of production have been announced by representatives of Thalasso Numero1 and OVoyages, the most important French tour operators specialising in wellness tourism, who are also set to announce their arrival in Croatia next year.
During 2017, more than 540,000 French arrivals were recorded, an increase of 9 percent when compared to the figures last year, accompanied by a record 2.1 million overnight stays, an increase of 5 percent compared to last year.
